The challenge: Managing a massive database environment while growing rapidly

Back in 2012, Braze (then Appboy), was one of the only companies that chose to shard their databases from the start. They made the assumption that they were going to grow, so they architected a sharded MongoDB environment for scalability. And sure enough, their growth has been remarkable as brand after brand adds Braze’s CRM and mobile marketing automation capabilities to their apps.

Today, it’s managing the sheer volume of data and number of shards and instances that presents the biggest operational challenge for Braze. They needed help architecting and maintaining such a massive and sprawling DB environment while continuing to position themselves for near-constant explosive growth into the foreseeable future.

Why ObjectRocket?

“ObjectRocket has partnered with Braze to push MongoDB up to and possibly past its limits,” says Jon Hyman, CTO and Cofounder of Braze. Some examples of that partnership include: physical hardware changes, kernel tweaks, architectural changes for Mongo (adding MongoS’s), design assistance, application- and database-level design architecting, running a custom-patched MongoDB software version, making network improvements to accommodate microbursts up to 10 Gbps, indexing help, and troubleshooting as well as upgrades to Braze’s massive environments.

Hyman explains, “ObjectRocket has done so many things over the years to help us scale from an environment that was only around 10 instances and about 150 shards to where we are today with over 40 instances and almost 1,000 shards.” In fact, he credits ObjectRocket as being essential to Braze’s technical success.

Customer’s Business:Braze (formerly Appboy) is a customer engagement platform that delivers messaging experiences across push, email, apps, and more. Braze is built specifically for today’s mobile-first world and tomorrow’s ambient computing future. Braze is set apart as the platform that allows for real-time and continuous data streaming, replacing decades-old databases that aren’t built for today’s on-demand, always-connected customer.

Challenge:
Braze has experienced rapid and tremendous growth in recent years. They needed a partner to build out and support their databases on an operational level so Braze could focus on adding products, features, and services that fulfilled their long-term strategic business plan.

Outcome:
Braze has been able to scale rapidly and smoothly because they outsourced their database operations to ObjectRocket, which currently manages 44 MongoDB instances (almost 1,000 50-GB shards), a total of 45 terabytes of data, on Braze’s behalf.

We are likely one of the largest installations of MongoDB in the world. Our partnership with ObjectRocket has allowed us to get where we are today.

Jon Hyman, CTO and Cofounder, Braze

The end result:
A flexible, reliable, and highly scalable solution

Every month, tens of billions of messages associated with over one and a quarter-billion active users are managed through Braze’s technology. To accomplish this, ObjectRocket helps them run what might be the world’s largest installation of MongoDB. ObjectRocket’s managed database solutions ensure that Braze remains highly available, providing a service at all times, so that their customers can rely on them.